The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ (Switch) Review

The Binding of Isaac was the first game I ever bought on Steam, and it’s been interesting seeing it grow over the years with all its updates and expansions. I never got into the game as much as some of my friends or the people who filled out the countless pages of the game’s wiki, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Now that Isaac is on the Switch I’ve found myself more engaged and playing it more often because it’s a game perfectly suited to a handheld device. It’s the kind of game that benefits from being able to jump into for a quick session on the bus, or hunkering down into a longer playthrough that you can stop and start as needed. There’s so much to uncover in the game, and if you’re the kind of person who digs into it all then there’s a long and fulfilling experience ahead of you. If you’re not, then there’s still an enjoyable game here but you wouldn’t want to pay the full Australian price for it.

In The Binding of Isaac you play as Isaac, who has ventured into the horror that is his basement after his mother tries to kill him. You have to explore the procedurally-generated dungeons that await and keep Isaac safe from the grotesque monsters that fill them. You use the stick or buttons on one side of the controller to move around and the stick or buttons on the other side to attack by firing tears out of Isaac’s eyes. The controls are nice and smooth, which is good because you’ll be going up against onslaughts of enemies with all sorts of different attack patterns. You’ll have some creatures jumping around erratically, some hounding you down, some firing projectiles all over the place – there’s a lot to take in and you’re extremely vulnerable so you have to be on your toes. Death is permanent, and you’ll have to start from the beginning again should you fall.

It sounds quite simple but there’s a lot of layers to the game that builds up its complexity. With a new dungeon being generated each time you play, you’re going to constantly encounter things that you’ve never seen before, like minibosses and gimmicky facilities that you’ll need to discover the function of. You’ll also find new loot (of which there is a LOT, and you’ll probably never see half of it) which changes up the gameplay in many ways. These could be items that change Isaac’s appearance and grant him new powers, or consumable items with temporary effects. You’ll have to play quite differently depending on which items you get equipped with while playing, and to make things even more complicated the game doesn’t explain what most of these items do. You’ll get a little tagline that hints at their function, but some of these are really vague. It adds an element of risk and reward to using consumables because they can provide some really useful buffs they could instead have negative effects that actually make you worse off.

This vagueness and obscurity are one of the big quirks of the game that will either draw you in and make you love it or turn you off it completely. There’s so much in the way of hidden secrets and locked content for you to discover, but some of it will basically require the use of a wiki due to them requiring all sorts of specific and obscure conditions. It’s an incredibly deep game, but in order to get the most out of it, you’ll need to be willing to do some research.

If you do put in the effort you’ll be highly rewarded with a game that’ll last an incredibly long time. The game is absolutely stuffed with content and even though you could theoretically ‘beat’ it in less than an hour if you’re good, this is only just the beginning. There’s extra dungeons and playable characters to unlock that make runs longer and more challenging, and all sorts of modifiers you can apply to your game to add gimmicks and challenges. One of the good things about all this is that there’s some persistent unlocks that stop ‘failed’ runs from being a total waste because you might unlock some new items to be added to the item pool or a new character to play as next time.

You’ve probably noticed from the screenshots in this article that The Binding of Isaac has an… interesting aesthetic. It features a combination of gross-out designs and biblical allusions to make for characters and an art style that will be really off-putting for a lot of people. You’ll stumble about dungeons splashed with blood and faeces while combatting headless corpses shooting blood and crying children with bugs bursting out of their heads. It does a good job of establishing dread and horror, but it’s definitely not for the faint of heart.

A neat feature that this version of Isaac has is same-screen co-operative play. If the main player has the health to spare, then up to three other players can take it and join in as a baby character. These floating characters can’t pick up items like Isaac can, but in exchange have different quirks and special abilities. The co-op is balanced in a way that allows additional players to contribute while not trivialising the game’s rough difficulty, but tying the ability for players to join into the main player’s health means that there could be periods where extra players are sitting around waiting for a turn to join in. If you’re going to play with single Joy Cons then be aware that the button mapping for this control method is quite awkward as you’ll have to use both sets of triggers. Yes, including the triggers that will be located on the side of a horizontal Joy Con. It’s not the end of the world as you’ll only need to do this sporadically to activate some items, but it’s awkward nonetheless. If you’re playing with the Switch undocked then you can also use the console’s touchscreen to activate these items instead.

The biggest turn-off of the Switch version is that it’s quite expensive here in Australia. The physical version is a full price game here, but it does come with some neat physical goodies (stickers and a manual). The digital version is a slightly more reasonable $60 but it’s still much more than it costs on other platforms. If you dig as deep into the game as you can then you could get this much value out of it, but I’d wager that most people won’t do that. If you think that’s true of yourself then wait for a sale or see if you can import it for cheaper.

The Binding of Isaac is a game where you’ll get out what you put in. There’s so much to uncover that fleshes out the simple mechanics into a deep and rich experience, but you have to work for it. If you’re someone who hates looking up wikis or guides to assist with playing games, then it’s definitely not for you. The portability of the Switch version makes it more enjoyable than those on other platforms, but the unfortunate Australian pricing of it complicates recommending it because it’s just too much.

Rating: 4 / 5